Anyways. So much has happened. For starters, I finally traveled Spain. I went to Toledo, Valencia, Granada, Sevilla, Madrid, Lisbon, Portugal, Pamplona, and Zamora; a new place each weekend, with Toledo and Valencia in the same weekend.
Toledo was rad because we went during Corpus Christi and the streets were decorated with flags and flowers and the likes. Toledo is exactly what you would expect a city to look like if that city was located within a castle. It honestly felt like I was in a different century. Apparently, Toledo is where the swords for Lord of the Rings were made, and most of the stores sold knives, daggers, full blown swords, or even knight's armor. I saw my first cathedral, too. I wish I was the kind of person that cried when they saw something as incredible as this cathedral because it was absolutely beautiful. The details are so extensive that I can't fathom a human being capable of creating them, especially considering the technology that was available when it was built. Unreal. It was so hot, though, and I only had two hours of sleep because of another story for another post. We walked around all day and I was dead by the end. Actually, I was dead by the beginning, but oh-so-dead by the end.
You know when you have those days where you look back and realize that you didn't actually do a whole lot, but you still had a great day? That happened to me with Valencia. We got to Valencia and walked out of the parking garage to find that a parade for Corpus Christi was going on - right in front of us! We watched that for a while before walking around, where we saw tons of buildings that were nothing like American buildings. The buildings here were in a class of their own. Holy cow the people in Spain actually try to make their buildings look memorable! It's one of my favorite things about Spain. Then we went to the beach!!! We ate paella on the board walk before we went to pick our spot in the sand. I saw my first set of boobs almost immediately, and I saw a lot more as the day went on, too. María, Josh, Gabby, and I went out into the ocean, then came back and chilled/ tanned with Linda. After bumming around for hours, we decided to walk along the boardwalk and looked at all of the little tiendas. Those three things (parade, beach, and boardwalk) were the only things we did that day. No complaints.
Granada was a lot of fun. There's a huge Arabian influence there, so most of the street vendors sold hookah, tea, and low-crotched, Aladdin-like pants. While the four girls went in and out of each store, Miguel and I stayed outside and talked about how each tienda was exactly the same as the last. The next day, we all went to Alhambra. Up until that point, I had thought that Alhambra was just a good brand of Spanish beer, but then I learned that it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of Spain. I still don't know exactly how to describe it because it's not a monument, but it's not a park either. It was super green and insanely pretty all throughout, with gardens and buildings and plazas. Every bush was perfectly manicured, and the water ran through the plazas and down the steps, not just in the fountains. The views were great, too. It's really something you have to see to conceptualize because it's difficult to explain. Afterwords, we visited the cathedral, which was also gorgeous like the one before. Granada is a very, very close third (maybe tied for second with Valencia) on my list of favorite trips for a ton of reasons: the city was beautiful, I was with people I really liked, our apartment that we rented was way cool, the bus rides to and from Granada were the best, and I had the best paella in all of Spain.
Most people would've learned their lesson after my experience with very little sleep the night before a trip. Most people wouldn't want to go through that again. Most people take care of themselves and don't want to bring misery into their lives. That being said, the morning we left for Sevilla I only had only slept for one hour (again, another story for another post). I was able to sleep for an hour on the train, but, unsurprisingly, I was still tired. I don't remember specifics, but I do remember it being unbelievably hot. I also remember that Plaza España was one of the prettiest things I have seen in my entire trip to Spain. A gigantic courtyard with beautiful tile everywhere, and stair rails that were all distinct from one another, making it impossible to see everything quickly. Plus, there was music in the background and people in row boats rowing across the pools of water, which dished out a kind of romantic vibe. It was lovely. The next day we went up the Metropol Parasol, which is this giant wooden structure with a weird shape. I thought it was way cool, but it would have been cooler at night or at sunset.
Madrid was surprisingly unimpressive, and, once again, it was extremely hot. It was my first trip without Linda, who had planned all of the trips prior and did a fantastic job. I went with Monique (Nix) and neither of us had a lot of interest in any of the museums, but, in hindsight, I think that's the appeal of Madrid. We did go the the Museo del Prado which had works of Picasso, but it was a museum, so it was a little boring. We mostly just walked around the city blindly, stumbling upon a few different attractions, but what ended up being the most resounding was the vertical gardin. It's unique. Before we left, Nix and I stopped at a McDonald's because we were curious if they were the same as in America. More or less, they're the same; however, this McDonald's had macaroons and we decided to buy one of each flavor since we hadn't ever tried macaroons. Those ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the trip because macaroons are delicious. Kudos McDonald's.
My favorite trip by a landslide is Lisbon, Portugal. As a fair warning, I won't be able to appropriately describe why it's my favorite, but I'll try. We left on an overnight train and arrived at the station in Lisbon around eight in the morning. After struggling with the metro for a few hours we finally made it to the house we rented and set our stuff down and showered. From there, we went to see the city. We saw all of the sights on the tourist map, except for one or two, including an old cafeteria that made "natas" (the famous pastry of Lisbon) and another restaurant close by that made fantastic shoarma for cheap (€5 for the shoarma, fries, and a drink). At the end of the night, we ate in a "Plaza Mayor" kind of place, and on the other side of the plaza was a concert. We sat around and ate and talked and listened to the band for a few hours before finally going home. It was nice and relaxed. The next day, Independence Day, we saw the remaining attractions that we missed the day before, then went to the beach. We didn't stay long, but it was fun. Afterwards, we went to a supermarket and bought burgers, salad stuff, and supplies for s'mores. On our way back we ran into some Austrailian guys we'd met the day before and invited them over. Everyone played cards while I tried to cook burgers with insufficient amounts of coal, then we just hung out for a while. The day after that we all took a trip to Sintra, a town that was 40 minutes away by train. The whole city was green!!! Trees and flowers everywhere! The flowers were huge, too! It was nuts. It was like Alhambra, but as a city (but with less fountains than Alhambra). We went to a sweet looking palace and it was really pretty, but the inside was extremely boring. Since this palace was in a park, we explored the park and found a well-thing that you could walk down. Súper guay. Afterwards, we ate dinner at a restaurant that had typical Portugese food and finished the night with one of the best sunsets I've ever seen in my life.
The Running of the Bulls is kind of a big deal, right? I can check that off my bucket list before it even made it onto the list. I'll tell this tale from two sides. First: San Fermín is incredible. There are tons of people all dressed in white and red which makes everything look so festive. Around every corner there's a band playing, people singing their hearts out, or, often times, both. It's so lively and happy. Then there's the bull fights and the running of the bulls, of course. There's one place in the whole world where you can watch bulls run down the streets in the morning, with people running alongside, then watch the same bulls in a bull fight later that day, and I was there. Amazing. The second perspective: public urination. The streets are always wet. Is it water? Is it wine? Maybe. But whatever it is, it has a high pee-content. There are thousands of people in the streets at all times during San Fermín, and as long as there are drunk men and a wall for them to pee on, the tradition will reign. I also saw a girl, mid-day, squat down in the middle of the street and contribute to the smell of porta-potty. Gross. There's also tons of trash. Mostly empty bottles of sangria, beer, or cups that at one point had beer or sangria in them, but nonetheless, the streets were disgusting. Anyways, bull fights are kind of cool, but surprisingly sad. I didn't know what happened in a bull fight until about two weeks before, but even still, it was more sad than I thought it would be. The running of the bulls was way neat. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and everybody was anxiously waiting for the bulls to pass by. It was cool and all, but it was at most ten seconds of bulls running and people clearing out of the way - super quick experience. Overall take-away from Pamplona: one of the best trips I've done with once in a lifetime experiences. Extremely fun and well worth the debt I'm in because of it.
My host family and I went to Zamora for a canoeing competition that the two youngest were competing in. I didn't know we were going until about an hour before we left, but I can roll with the punches so it was no big deal. Apparently it takes five hours to get there, so I slept for half of it, then played a surprisingly childish family car game (despite everyone in the car being at least 18 years old). We explored the city for a bit, then grabbed a bite. Afterwards we went out and drank a few beers with all of the parents of the canoeing kids. It was so nice not having to pay for my food or drinks for once. When we were finished with that, we went to the hostel. As it turns out, the parents reserved two private rooms, and guess who got their own room... Yup. Maripaz and I. Maripaz and I got a whole room to ourselves so that she could practice flirting and I could practice being "really tired all of a sudden." It was a lot of fun. The next day we watched the kids compete, then went right back for Cuenca. I studied the entire way back, which was helpful since I hadn't studied in a long time.
I'll post again sometime soon. I won't include my logs this time because that would spoil whatever else I'd want to write about.
You know when you have those days where you look back and realize that you didn't actually do a whole lot, but you still had a great day? That happened to me with Valencia. We got to Valencia and walked out of the parking garage to find that a parade for Corpus Christi was going on - right in front of us! We watched that for a while before walking around, where we saw tons of buildings that were nothing like American buildings. The buildings here were in a class of their own. Holy cow the people in Spain actually try to make their buildings look memorable! It's one of my favorite things about Spain. Then we went to the beach!!! We ate paella on the board walk before we went to pick our spot in the sand. I saw my first set of boobs almost immediately, and I saw a lot more as the day went on, too. María, Josh, Gabby, and I went out into the ocean, then came back and chilled/ tanned with Linda. After bumming around for hours, we decided to walk along the boardwalk and looked at all of the little tiendas. Those three things (parade, beach, and boardwalk) were the only things we did that day. No complaints.
Granada was a lot of fun. There's a huge Arabian influence there, so most of the street vendors sold hookah, tea, and low-crotched, Aladdin-like pants. While the four girls went in and out of each store, Miguel and I stayed outside and talked about how each tienda was exactly the same as the last. The next day, we all went to Alhambra. Up until that point, I had thought that Alhambra was just a good brand of Spanish beer, but then I learned that it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in all of Spain. I still don't know exactly how to describe it because it's not a monument, but it's not a park either. It was super green and insanely pretty all throughout, with gardens and buildings and plazas. Every bush was perfectly manicured, and the water ran through the plazas and down the steps, not just in the fountains. The views were great, too. It's really something you have to see to conceptualize because it's difficult to explain. Afterwords, we visited the cathedral, which was also gorgeous like the one before. Granada is a very, very close third (maybe tied for second with Valencia) on my list of favorite trips for a ton of reasons: the city was beautiful, I was with people I really liked, our apartment that we rented was way cool, the bus rides to and from Granada were the best, and I had the best paella in all of Spain.
Most people would've learned their lesson after my experience with very little sleep the night before a trip. Most people wouldn't want to go through that again. Most people take care of themselves and don't want to bring misery into their lives. That being said, the morning we left for Sevilla I only had only slept for one hour (again, another story for another post). I was able to sleep for an hour on the train, but, unsurprisingly, I was still tired. I don't remember specifics, but I do remember it being unbelievably hot. I also remember that Plaza España was one of the prettiest things I have seen in my entire trip to Spain. A gigantic courtyard with beautiful tile everywhere, and stair rails that were all distinct from one another, making it impossible to see everything quickly. Plus, there was music in the background and people in row boats rowing across the pools of water, which dished out a kind of romantic vibe. It was lovely. The next day we went up the Metropol Parasol, which is this giant wooden structure with a weird shape. I thought it was way cool, but it would have been cooler at night or at sunset.
Madrid was surprisingly unimpressive, and, once again, it was extremely hot. It was my first trip without Linda, who had planned all of the trips prior and did a fantastic job. I went with Monique (Nix) and neither of us had a lot of interest in any of the museums, but, in hindsight, I think that's the appeal of Madrid. We did go the the Museo del Prado which had works of Picasso, but it was a museum, so it was a little boring. We mostly just walked around the city blindly, stumbling upon a few different attractions, but what ended up being the most resounding was the vertical gardin. It's unique. Before we left, Nix and I stopped at a McDonald's because we were curious if they were the same as in America. More or less, they're the same; however, this McDonald's had macaroons and we decided to buy one of each flavor since we hadn't ever tried macaroons. Those ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the trip because macaroons are delicious. Kudos McDonald's.
My favorite trip by a landslide is Lisbon, Portugal. As a fair warning, I won't be able to appropriately describe why it's my favorite, but I'll try. We left on an overnight train and arrived at the station in Lisbon around eight in the morning. After struggling with the metro for a few hours we finally made it to the house we rented and set our stuff down and showered. From there, we went to see the city. We saw all of the sights on the tourist map, except for one or two, including an old cafeteria that made "natas" (the famous pastry of Lisbon) and another restaurant close by that made fantastic shoarma for cheap (€5 for the shoarma, fries, and a drink). At the end of the night, we ate in a "Plaza Mayor" kind of place, and on the other side of the plaza was a concert. We sat around and ate and talked and listened to the band for a few hours before finally going home. It was nice and relaxed. The next day, Independence Day, we saw the remaining attractions that we missed the day before, then went to the beach. We didn't stay long, but it was fun. Afterwards, we went to a supermarket and bought burgers, salad stuff, and supplies for s'mores. On our way back we ran into some Austrailian guys we'd met the day before and invited them over. Everyone played cards while I tried to cook burgers with insufficient amounts of coal, then we just hung out for a while. The day after that we all took a trip to Sintra, a town that was 40 minutes away by train. The whole city was green!!! Trees and flowers everywhere! The flowers were huge, too! It was nuts. It was like Alhambra, but as a city (but with less fountains than Alhambra). We went to a sweet looking palace and it was really pretty, but the inside was extremely boring. Since this palace was in a park, we explored the park and found a well-thing that you could walk down. Súper guay. Afterwards, we ate dinner at a restaurant that had typical Portugese food and finished the night with one of the best sunsets I've ever seen in my life.
The Running of the Bulls is kind of a big deal, right? I can check that off my bucket list before it even made it onto the list. I'll tell this tale from two sides. First: San Fermín is incredible. There are tons of people all dressed in white and red which makes everything look so festive. Around every corner there's a band playing, people singing their hearts out, or, often times, both. It's so lively and happy. Then there's the bull fights and the running of the bulls, of course. There's one place in the whole world where you can watch bulls run down the streets in the morning, with people running alongside, then watch the same bulls in a bull fight later that day, and I was there. Amazing. The second perspective: public urination. The streets are always wet. Is it water? Is it wine? Maybe. But whatever it is, it has a high pee-content. There are thousands of people in the streets at all times during San Fermín, and as long as there are drunk men and a wall for them to pee on, the tradition will reign. I also saw a girl, mid-day, squat down in the middle of the street and contribute to the smell of porta-potty. Gross. There's also tons of trash. Mostly empty bottles of sangria, beer, or cups that at one point had beer or sangria in them, but nonetheless, the streets were disgusting. Anyways, bull fights are kind of cool, but surprisingly sad. I didn't know what happened in a bull fight until about two weeks before, but even still, it was more sad than I thought it would be. The running of the bulls was way neat. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and everybody was anxiously waiting for the bulls to pass by. It was cool and all, but it was at most ten seconds of bulls running and people clearing out of the way - super quick experience. Overall take-away from Pamplona: one of the best trips I've done with once in a lifetime experiences. Extremely fun and well worth the debt I'm in because of it.
My host family and I went to Zamora for a canoeing competition that the two youngest were competing in. I didn't know we were going until about an hour before we left, but I can roll with the punches so it was no big deal. Apparently it takes five hours to get there, so I slept for half of it, then played a surprisingly childish family car game (despite everyone in the car being at least 18 years old). We explored the city for a bit, then grabbed a bite. Afterwards we went out and drank a few beers with all of the parents of the canoeing kids. It was so nice not having to pay for my food or drinks for once. When we were finished with that, we went to the hostel. As it turns out, the parents reserved two private rooms, and guess who got their own room... Yup. Maripaz and I. Maripaz and I got a whole room to ourselves so that she could practice flirting and I could practice being "really tired all of a sudden." It was a lot of fun. The next day we watched the kids compete, then went right back for Cuenca. I studied the entire way back, which was helpful since I hadn't studied in a long time.
I'll post again sometime soon. I won't include my logs this time because that would spoil whatever else I'd want to write about.
